Time To Think, Talk And Lead In Maths

"Time to think, talk and lead In Maths", researches the impact of a new pedagogy that uses co-construction of learning between the teacher and the pupils to embed social skills, deep learning, and cognitive problem solving capacity .The study focusses on developing motivated, collaborative and reflective learners to raise attainment in maths.

This paper will review the design and impact of the pedagogical model that intends to improve the quality of teaching and learning to provide school improvement for self, school and system. A mixed methods approach was used to collect and analyse data, with baseline data being collected before and after the interventions to analyse emergent findings and indications of impact.

Considerations were made about information to be used in the project. During last term, evidence was gathered to generate new knowledge, attempting to create an effective pedagogical model for teaching mathematics. This knowledge will be triangulated against other research methods and theories, attempting to make the logical statements and claims generalizable for scaling in the case study. (Yin, 2010).

Key emergent findings are:-

• There is a need to shift passive learners into active learner
• Improving learning efficacy increases student motivation
• Learning should be hard and pupils need more thinking time when in the learning pit
• Co-construction of knowledge increases motivation
• Using reflective group discussion can help pupils identify their own errors and misconceptions
• The new pedagogical model can identify and overcome learning barriers
• Relating problems to real life situations helps learners` understanding
• Using Ipads to record dialogue and assessment is motivating for the pupils.
• Singapore maths makes teaching and learning more engaging
• Exploratory talk has been more frequent in lessons
• Learners want to be challenged

Key words: Pedagogy, problem based learning, dialogue, reflection, collaborative activities, high order thinking, learning pit, action research, meta-cognition, co-construction of learning.